It looks like we will be going on vacation again in June and I am so excited!! Just the thought of travel makes me so happy, I can’t even put it into words! In an effort to placate my travel bug until my next trip, I am determined to start writing down and sharing some of my better travel stories. Hoping to make this a weekly thing!
Last May, Danae and I spent some time in Germany. We both LOVED it and I’m hoping to eventually commemorate all (well most) of our adventures on the blog. We spent a night in Sababurg at the Dornröschenschloss Sababurg-the castle that the Grimm Brothers wrote the original Sleeping Beauty story about!
When we decided to stay at the castle, we just thought about how awesome staying at a castle would be, not that it was out in the middle of the country. So after arriving mid-day and checking in, we found ourselves with nothing to do. Dinner wasn’t for a few hours and there was no town to explore, which had been our daily activity. The front desk recommended we visit the zoo next door. Around since 1571, the Tierpark Sababurg is the oldest preserved zoo in Germany.
I’m not really an animal person but considering our lack of options, we decided to hit the Tierpark. There was a path through the countryside (and possibly a few people’s backyards) that included statues of the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales, just in case we forgot we were staying at the Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Mother Goose
Princess and the Frog
As had become our daily ritual, we had a snack of beer and cake at the biergarten in the zoo. There’s no open container law, so in Germany they sell booze pretty much everywhere. And the smallest beer size is usually 0.5L. It was pretty amazing.
Since we knew about 3 words in German, we took a picture of the sign and set off excited to see what kind of animals they have in a German zoo. For whatever reason we were expecting something cool and foreign. We were a bit disappointed.
Bunnies in the petting zoo (kontaktbereich) area that ran away when we walked toward them
Penguins in the filthiest pool I have ever seen (according to the website there is a new penguin area as of September...return trip?)
Wildschweine! Wild boars (or extremely obese pigs)
Malnourished looking sheep
Two-toned sheep
Cows
A molting chicken
And a turkey
At this point we were bored since we had basically only seen barnyard animals. The turkey gobbled and we found this hilarious. So we started rattling its cage to make it gobble more. The more it got mad and gobbled, the more we laughed. I’m sorry if this offends any animal lovers out there, but here is a video:
While the turkey provided us with a few minutes of entertainment, we decided to leave the pathetic excuse for a zoo and head back. Cutting across the donkey petting zoo area was the fastest way. It was really more of a giant field where the donkeys roamed free instead of a petting area. We were about halfway across when we saw a baby donkey running towards us. We kept walking, assuming it will slow down or stop. It was doing nothing but picking up speed and we started freaking out a little bit. About a foot in front of us it suddenly stopped, then runs to me and starts biting my bag and hip checking me. It might have been a baby, but that sucker was strong and it nearly knocked me over a few times. I was yelling and trying to keep it from eating my bag, while Danae was laughing and taking pictures. After a minute of me slowly trying to back away, it loses interest and runs off again. We left the kontactbereich area as fast as we could, and took the long way back to the exit!
It may look like I am happily petting an animal, but that is actually a look of pure terror!
The little devil hiding behind a tree stump
Stay out of the kontactbereich!
Confused as to why they have kept this place open since 1571
We decided to take a different route back to the castle and realized we about a quarter mile later that we were walking along the autobahn. Probably not our smartest decision ever, but we had some good scenery!!
Pretty view of the countryside from the autobahn
The autobahn and Sababurg Castle
A zoo full of barnyard animals, getting attacked by a baby donkey, and walking along the autobahn all in one afternoon…it is random experiences like these that make for the best stories and make me love travel!!
Tacos on the Rooftop 